Studies in Indian Art c7.s1.10

c7.s1.10

The picture is equally true for the Jainas and the Hindus, Mahāvīra represented in his victory over the serpent symbolising death, and Kṛṣṇa defeating the all-consuming poisonous fumes of a deadly serpent and dancing over its hoods and wresting from its clutches the Lotuses—these are motifs in the same tradition symbolising a common pattern of thought. A systematic study of these mythical and legendary lives of the founders of religions reveals the axis of their spiritual make-up. There would be many details which are merely excrescences, but one can not miss the grain in the chaff.